RUFOUS-BREASTED THICKHEAD. 
In my “ Reference List ” I admitted four subspecies : P. r. rufiventris from 
South Queensland, N.S.W., and Victoria ; P. r. 'pallida from North Queensland ; 
P. r. inornata from South and South-west Australia ; and P. r. falcata from 
North-west Australia and Northern Territory. 
Later, receiving topotypical specimens from the Northern Territory 
I differentiated the North-western form as P. r. colletti. “ Differs from P. r. 
falcata in being paler grey above and very much paler below, and also 
slightly smaller : Parry’s Creek, North-west Australia.” 
Zietz then separated the Melville Island bird as P. r. minor , writing : 
44 Similar in coloration of upper and lower surface to that of P. r. inornata 
from South Australia, but has less black on sides of head ; tail-feathers 
black at their base instead of grey. Wing 89, wing of P. r. inornata 99. 
This form should have been compared with Gould’s falcata from Port 
Essington, not with the South Australian race. I could not distinguish my 
Melville Island series from topotypes of Gould’s species. As recorded, Captain 
S. A. White named the Central Australian bird L. r. maudece, and recently 
I distinguished the South-west Australian race as L. r. didimus on account 
of its darker coloration above and below. 
There are, however, still other races to be distinguished, as Captain S. A. 
White recorded of the Gawler Ranges : 44 Were met with in pairs occasionally, 
both in the ranges and on the plains. The coloration of all birds which came 
under notice was very pale, many shades paler than the birds found farther 
south ” ; and Campbell and Barnard wrote of the Rockingham Bay birds : 44 This 
Thickhead made music wherever we went, whether on the lowland or on the 
table-land, and eggs were secured. The male is slightly smaller and richer 
coloured, and with a more silvery sheen on the upper-surface compared with a 
typical rufiventris. Whatever the race be, it is not Ramsay’s pallidus, as 
indicated by Mathews. The song and well-known 4 E-chow ’ note are similar 
to those uttered by the bird in its southern or summer habitat.” Then dealing 
with birds from the King River, Northern Territory, Campbell recorded : 
4 4 Smaller and paler (pale cinnamon) on the breast than the southern race. 
But colour may be regulated by season, drought, etc., because a pair (3 and $) 
taken on the McArthur River (N.T.) two years previously to the King River 
specimens is singularly rich-coloured — more so than any southern rufiventris 
in the 4 H. L. White Collection.’ ” 
Macgillivray noted : 44 Common in the Gulf country and at Cape York.” 
The subspecies at present can be recorded thus : 
Lewinornis rufiventris rufiventris (Latham). 
New South Wales ; South Queensland ; 
Victoria. 
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